New statesman visit

A really cool opportunity arose out of the blue, an editor from new statesman came along to the Uni, to see what work we have in response to two specific briefs suggested by her. To summarise what the new statesman is, it's a political and cultural magazine, that most importantly to us, uses a fair amount of illustration.

An example of a cover using illustration, one of Andre Carhillos poignant caricatures

First there was an article from musician Moby, documenting his thoughts on the contemporary world. He had quite a lot to say, meaning there was a wealth of quotes to work from. I opted to follow an image that came to me when considering the interview as a whole. Moby talks a lot about the world around him, as in his home life, and seeing the general direction of the world having an effect on his environment. The most drastic and pivotal change for him being the election of trump. 

This had me thinking of the election seeping in to his home life, little things occurring that shouldn't, a scenario where Moby goes to have some toast, only to find that it has trumps face on it. For this I really needed to capture both trump and Moby. Moby was easy as they come, bald guy with glasses, sorted. Trump on he other hand took a surprising amount of finessing.

I initially wanted him to be somewhat cartoony, but found it really hard to nail his likeness with this method. In the end I resorted to using a somewhat realistic result using a specific photo reference.

The other brief was a promotion of an upcoming dystopian drama, about a Britain under Nazi control if Germany won the war, a show called SS-GB. I wanted to capture what Hitler my have done with the British throne to his disposal, enjoying a quiet moment playing monarch. I felt weird keeping it at that though, uncomfortable making something that was kind of a propaganda picture putting hitler in a favourable light. For this I ensured that he seemed dwarfed sitting on the throne, having a commentary on him being unsuitable for the position.

 It was really rewarding to get a reaction in person from what would be the client in this situation. She gave great feedback, noting what she liked, and thought could be improved. The main issue or point she made being that, on the Moby image , it seemed that trump was a mask, not toast. I could fix this issue by possibly creating a breakfast scene to surround the object, and really drive home the scenario. The SS-GB design went down really well, but I feel personally it sill needs more of a thematic shift to show hitler in an overtly negative light. Something along the lines of hamming up his expression and body language to appear as a cartoon evil villain.